From the Editor After The Hurricane

Hurricane Katrina packed a punch felt around the country. Among those reeling were many Gulf Coast in-plants. The fate of those in New Orleans is as murky as the water that once covered that town. Tulane University's in-plant, like its campus, remains closed. Through the in-plant grapevine I learned that manager Orin Fosberg got his family safely out of town, but the future of his shop, as with many New Orleans' businesses, is unclear.

In Biloxi, which lost so many buildings to the storm, two of the in-plants closest to the chaos survived virtually unscathed. Though winds tore off roofs at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, the in-plant's metal building was untouched. It was able to start right up after the school was reopened, and was busy printing football programs when I called.

The biggest problem, Manager Larry Falcon told me, was getting supplies. He was in good spirits when we talked. In fact, it wasn't until five minutes into our conversation that he dropped a bombshell: "We lost our house," he said. His family had lived near the beach and lost everything. They're now living in a rented house near campus. Larry has been trying to look on the positive side: At least now he's a lot closer to work.

Homelessness was also the biggest impact at Biloxi Public Schools, where Floyd Bullock runs the two-employee in-plant. At a meeting of the district's 1,100 or so employees it was revealed that one out of four had lost their homes. Floyd said his shop lost only a few reams of paper due to water damage. This is amazing considering that nearly all buildings south of his in-plant were destroyed. Floyd said his is the only print shop still operating in the vicinity. The hurricane wiped out all five local commercial printers.

I was actually scheduled to be in Biloxi a couple weeks after the hurricane to attend the National State Publishing Association conference. The beachfront hotel where we were to meet was washed across the highway. NSPA President Joe Tucker, Ohio State Printer, acted quickly and decisively to reschedule the conference for October 23-26 in northern Mississippi, and deserves recognition for his extraordinary efforts.

Another industry conference, the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, also had to be cancelled because of the storm. It had made the ill-fated decision to meet in New Orleans this year.

An hour north of the Crescent City, Baton Rouge has become a crowded place due to massive relocation of evacuees. Louisiana State University offered its grounds as a field hospital, and some LSU Graphic Services employees like Ken Watson volunteered their services. Ken says the highways and supermarkets of his city are quite clogged these days, but he and other in-plant employees are glad they experienced only a few downed trees and power outages due to the storm.

LSU's Don Davis says in the days after the storm the in-plant printed some handouts and campus maps to help evacuees. Otherwise, the storm affected the in-plant only slightly, though the rush of evacuees from New Orleans has brought one lingering setback: Before the storm, Don says, the shop had installed a Kodak Digimaster 9150i. It's been sitting idle ever since because the Kodak trainer hasn't been able to find a place to stay. There are no rooms available anywhere in the Baton Rouge area.

And there likely won't be for a very long while.